Music by Bob Young John Sangster Songs "Stop It From Happening" "Small Town" by Gairden Cooke

Music in the film:

At the town creatures' grand launch of the dam, there is a providing the music:

Lyrics:

After Dot, the koala and the Mayor manage to escape the collapse of the dam in a meteorological balloon, somehow they end up above Sydney.

Dot: "Look at that city over there. The traffic's a mess and the streets are full of pollution. People are rushing all the time… (The Mayor looks disturbed, as another angle over a city intersection shows speeded-up traffic)… What's the point? You wouldn't want to turn your pretty home town into a big, noisy city … (back on Dot) … now, look down at your own little town … (magically now back over the bush town, as seen from the balloon) …everyone's relaxed … (goat on a rocking chair in front of the Empire Hotel) … there's fresh air …and you can hear the birds singing …I'm not against progress Mayor Percy … (police sergeant on chair relaxing outside cop shop and jail) … but you really shouldn't damage the bush … (town animal kids playing skipping rope in the main street) … let's try to have progress without destruction…" (on Clyde Dale, blacksmith, applying a shoe to his own hoof) … (on cat carpenter, sawing outside school) …(on old dawg, in lazy chair on pavement, and then we hear koala's voice over the image).

Koala: "This country was founded on two principles …(koala talking to crowd of town folk critters) … if it moves, shoot it. If it stands still, cut it down. At the time your ancestors … (koala turns into an ancient almost simian shape, with paint on cheeks and waving a bone) …were sitting in caves, painting themselves with dye and throwing bones at passing mammoths … (back on koala, back to his usual self, standing upright, paw on chest) … we, the Australian native animals, had already reached maturity …(town critters listening) … after thousands of years here, we've earned our right to put our paws up … (on modern young Australians in an outdoor crowd, some eating food)…and sip a cool gum leaf and soda … (on a much wider shot of a young crowd of people, then back to koala, lecturing the town critters) …when you grow up, drop along to my tree and say hello … (the animated koala jumps away from the podium, and the image cuts to a real koala climbing a gum tree, as a song begins) …and relax …"

Lyrics as heard in the film:

… we're a small town …

(Animated koala, speaking: "in the peace of the bush")

...but we think we're happy ...

(the real koala begins eating gum leaves. Move in on claw holding leaves, then fade to black, as end credits begin and song continues)

And the sun shines down And our feet hardly touch the ground And the good Lord Mmm, he's a clever chappie The world's cleverest, or so they say And we just sleep and work so we can play We're a small town But we think we're happy Oh well we ain't got no TV But life carries on … Ain't got no Colosseum But our kids tag along And while we teach them how to cook and sew Tomorrow morning something they all know (with chorus) The sun will keep on shining through the day And we will go on dreaming come what may The sun will keep on shining through the day And we will go on dreaming come what may The sun will keep on shining through the day … (the song fades out on last copyright notice credit).

Co-composer Bob Young:

Bob Young had worked as an Australian show band arranger and conductor, as well as a composer before doing the score for the feature film Journey Out Of Darkness.

He did a trilogy of films for Goldsworthy CUP, starting with It Takes All Kinds, followed by Color Me Dead, and then the last in the package, That Lady from Peking, which was released in 1971.

After doing the convict drama Adam's Woman for Warner Bros, he would continue on with other feature films, including Warwick Freeman's Demonstrator. As well as Inn of the Damned, he would do Plugg, Little Boy Lost and Lady Stay Dead with director Terry Bourke.

Young also became an arranger and composer for Yoram Gross and his "Dot" animation features, starting with Dot and the Kangaroo, and including Gross's Sarah and The Camel Boy, and continuing until Gross's son Guy took over composing duties for the company.

He became the first president of the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) for the period 1987-1991, hosting the first Screen Music Awards ceremony in 1992.

Young led a varied musical life, working with Bobby Limb and appearing on stations such as 2UW, and is mentioned in a memoir about Don Banks, at Trove here:

…my war years were spent mainly around Melbourne and I started to do much more regular playing. Some of the people I worked with were Russ Jones on vibes, Bobby Limb on saxophone, and Bob ‘Beetles’ Young, who played piano. They had just come over from Adelaide to play with Bob Gibson’s band down at St Kilda.

(Below: Bob "Beetles" Young in his Bob Gibson band days) Co-composer John Sangster:

John Sangster was a Melbourne-born Australian composer and arranger, who also played drums, the cornette and vibraphone.

In relation to his work for Avengers of the Reef, the Oxford noted that his "sinister percussive" score helped produce highly competent children's entertainment.

John Sangster has a wiki here. In the Australian scene Sangster was an innovative musician, starting with the group Tully, working his way through a Lord of the Rings series of LPs, and working on a variety of scores for films and television documentaries. A lot of his music was on the Swaggie label.

Sangster also did the score for the relatively lost family telemovie Fluteman.

When it is remembered, the film is usually remembered for its score by John Sangster, performed by flautist . Burrows, whose career intersected with Sangster a number of times, has a wiki here.

Move Records lists the CD release of the original soundtrack recording here, with links to further details to the various artists who worked on the disc, along with this note on the disc and Sangster:

John Sangster composed the music for the little-known film "Fluteman" in 1982. The film may not be high in your mind, but the music performed by Don Burrows (flute), and eight other jazz players makes wonderful listening apart from the film. This is the line-up: Don Burrows: concert and alto flutes, clarinet and fife Errol Buddle: oboe, piccolo and alto saxophone Col Loughnan: flute and tenor saxophone Roy Ainsworth: bass-clarinet and baritone saxophone George Golla: electric and acoustic guitars Tony Ansell: electric piano and synthesiser Chris Qua: bass Alan Turnbull: Drums and finger-cymbals John Sangster: percussions, which include marimba, vibraphone, bell-tree, glockenspiel, vibraslap and tambourine The CD comes with brief track by track program notes written by John Sangster. John Sangster was one of the most talented musicians of all time, a technician and creator who embraced and understood more styles of music than any other.

Sangster wrote a book about his life and musical times, published by Penguin.

(Below: John Sangster, and related works)